Rensselaer County Sheriff Jack Mahar speaks during a press conference held late Thursday morning regarding a fatal, one-car accident which occurred earlier in the day in Stephentown. (Mike McMahon / The Record)

TROY -- A 24-year-old Stephentown man was killed early Thursday morning in a one-car accident off of Route 43.

According to Sheriff Jack Mahar, Brendan Hoffman, 20, of Stephentown, crashed the car he was driving on Cranston Road around 12:50 a.m. He not only fled the scene, but left his passenger, Christopher Baker, 24, who was ejected from the vehicle, behind. Baker's body was not discovered for several hours.

Mahar said a person driving in the opposite direction told deputies the car Hoffman was driving nearly hit the witness' vehicle and then went into a ditch. The witness turned around to check on the crashed car and talked to Hoffman, who was having difficulties getting out of the car that had flipped over and was lying on its roof.

"The driver was groggy," Mahar said.

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At that time, another vehicle, driven by an unidentified female who knew Hoffman, pulled up to the scene. The witness told deputies Hoffman got into that vehicle and fled the scene.

Mahar said deputies did search the accident scene, but at the time weren't looking for a passenger. The car was towed and deputies were looking at nearby houses to see if the white car driven by the female could be located.

At 4:58 a.m., Mahar said Hoffman's father called the Sheriff's Office to say there was a passenger in the car.

Mahar said deputies and firefighters returned to the scene to conduct a more intensive search. Baker's body was located some 100-feet down a hill from where the car came to rest in a area where it would have been very difficult to see at night.

The search for Hoffman continued, Mahar said, until 6:30 Thursday morning, when deputies received information that he was at Berkshire Medical Center in Pittsfield, Mass. The extent of his injuries are unknown.

The investigation into the accident was continuing as of Thursday night.